Voice of the people (letter).

Pure Concern

CHICAGO — Like the Tribune editorial board, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) applauds the Chicago Public Schools' emphasis on early childhood education. We have reservations, however, about one program mentioned, Parents as Teachers First. In this program 500 parents called Parent Tutor Mentors will work in the homes of low-income families to teach parenting skills and to help children prepare for preschool.

PURE's major concern is the plan for screening, training and supervising parent tutors. Screening is minimal-- princi-pals select parent tutors on the basis of a one-page application. Training for parent tutors is limited--what was supposed to be seven weeks of training has been reduced to seven 3 1/2-hour sessions. Finally, supervision and backup support will be provided by current central office staff already overburdened with the expansion of other programs.

The job outline for parent tutors is difficult even for professional social-service workers. The problems of low-income families are often complex. In addition to poverty, parent tutors may find domestic violence, substance abuse, depression and other mental-health problems, child abuse and neglect and illness. Without extensive training in dealing with problems such as these and without close supervision as they do so, Parent Tutor Mentors may simply fail in their primary mission, education.

As a parents' organization, PURE supports parental involvement in schools; we know this involvement benefits schools, children and families. We believe, however, that Parents as Teachers First may be a recipe for parent failure, placing parent tutors in situations they have not been trained to handle, without adequate supervision and support.

Like the Tribune, PURE supports quality preschool programs. With careful planning, good screening of workers and the best possible training and supervision, Parents as Teachers First may become one. We hope it will.